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Wednesday, February 16, 2011

I'm a math teacher, and I'm proud of it! As I watch Haywee grade papers and read novels, I'm thankful that math is a pretty straight-forward field. It's very black or white - answers are either right or wrong. Sure, students can be partially right in their steps, but the answer boils down pretty simply. Kids these days don't hear it enough, or that's what everyone has you think. Children are coddled, losers are given participation trophies, etc. I hope to lower the stigma of being wrong in my class - it just means we need to try again and work harder - as well as praise when people when they do come to the right answer on their own. Math as a subject doesn't change much, although best practices in how to teach it do. I'll be the first to admit I'm not perfect and there's always room for improvement in my content knowledge and teaching strategies, but I do love what I do! I have to give a shout-out to MeganDubYuh, who is also a milspouse math teacher. Woot!

I like to tell my students that you learn more from a wrong answer than you do from the correct one.

And I love that I can grade papers by adding points up. You either got the answer right or you didn't. I would hate to be an English teacher. Even when I do have the write papers I have a very detailed rubric so I can have points to add up at the end.

@Megan - So very true, as that's when I reinforce how to check your answer to see if it works or if it's logical. I completely agree with you on the English teacher bit. While there's more opportunities for fun projects and arts and crafts, it's a lot more difficult to grade that work.

The ideas expressed within this blog are not endorsed by the Department of Defense, the United States Air Force, or the Air Force Reserve. The thoughts and experiences described are my own, unless otherwise directly stated and referenced.